Junior doctors replace lecture PowerPoints with holographic animations

This article was taken from the November 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

London-based junior doctors Kapil Sugand and Pedro Campos want to liven up lectures - by replacing PowerPoints with holographic animations.
"When we were medical students, it was painful at times," says Sugand. "People are stuck inside lecture theatres for up to nine hours, where they go through back-to-back PowerPoint presentations on very complicated and abstract concepts."

Sugand and Campos founded HAMLET (Holography-Assisted Medical Lecturing & E-Teaching) at the start of the year. They tested the first 3D animation, which featured a rotating four-metre-tall kidney, at St George's, University of London.

The floating image is made using an illusion known as Pepper's ghost. A screen is placed at an angle, and the animation projected on to it is reflected into empty space. The lecturer can then walk around and be seen through the image. "That communicationis much clearer using 3D holography as opposed to 2D PowerPoints," says Sugand.

The aim is to get the technology implemented across the medical curriculum, with the goal of training safer physicians: "If you improve yourself as a student, you improve yourself as a doctor.